Restaurant and food preparation industries require a large volume of produce to be processed such as by slicing so that the sliced produce can be used in food preparation and assembly. In addition to rapid slicing of produce, food preparation requires consistently sliced produce such that the food prepared with that produce is consistent in appearance, taste, texture, portion size, and cooking qualities between servings prepared.
Produce slicing is typically a manually performed task due to the aforementioned desire for consistency. As slicing necessarily requires some form of blade or cutting surface, this naturally involves a desire to seek solutions to improve safety for food preparation workers. Currently available slicing solutions have exposed blade sets which can present a risk to users during set up and operation. Currently available slicing solutions are limited to slicing a single piece of produce at a time.
Areas that are designated for food preparation often have limited space. With currently available slicing solutions, separate devices are used with each device configured to slice different produce. The need to store and maintain multiple devices adds further expense and use of already limited food preparation space.